Carol Pinchefsky contemplates commercial skipping DVRs, and other tales of really good technology that vanished, in 7 Awesome Bits of Tech That Just Freakin' Disappeared. As Pinchefsky writes: "...It got me thinking about awesome technology that we somehow ditched. The airship? Awesome. Slide rules? Awesome awesome. Mir Space Station? Boss-level awesome. And now just thinking about wristwatches with calculators makes me suffer a sense of short-term nostalgia (as in Douglas Coupland's Generation X). Here are some of the coolest features and products that we’ve lost along the way to 2012.

As much as I liked my Palm back in its day, I can't say that I've ever missed Graffiti. I'd take it over the Newton's attempt to recognise normal handwriting, but even a tiny little keyboard was a big improvement.

It came with a sticker that covered the handwriting entry area, so didn't take up valuable screen space like an onscreen keyboard. The Fitaly's touch screen optimised layout really did make a significant difference when compared with onscreen Qwerty.

That was easily the best thing I ever bought for my Palm, more than doubling my text entry speed. I'd like to say that it made me more productive, but what really made it worthwhile was how much more fun it made playing all those old Infocom text adventures.

Of course, as with all the better alternatives to Qwerty that have appeared, familiarity beat superiority and Fitaly never really took off.